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Gearing up to watch the Seahawks battle the Patriots on the field of Arizona Stadium? You might be feeling stressed at the thought of heading to a 3-5 hour long Superbowl party to watch the game while sitting across from a coffee table covered with snacks and party foods that may or may not be gluten-free. Set that stress aside because below are some fun tips to prepare for and enjoy the big game!

On game day there is no such thing as too many snacks. No host will complain about having an extra addition added to the buffet table or coffee table for guests to enjoy during the game.

I suggest bringing chips (corn tortilla chips are the easiest, maybe try buying Scoops!) and an assortment of dips. You don’t want to be limited to one option while watching the game so bring more than one dip in case there aren’t many other options for you at the party.

If you are worried about going hungry then try for a dip that is heartier than onion dip or salsa. Earlier this football season I hosted people for a game and made a hearty Mediterranean dip, inspired by the multi layer dips I have seen at grocery stores.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground lamb

Spices: garlic, onion, dried basil, salt and pepper

1 cucumber

1 carton of Greek yogurt

4 tablespoons of dill

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper

Feta cheese crumbles

Instructions:

Season the ground lamb with the spices listed above. Cook in a pan on high heat until browned. Pour meat onto a plate lined with multiple paper towels to collect grease. Set aside

Dice cucumber and chop the dill. Mix cucumber and dill with yogurt and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste

In a small glass dish put a layer of yogurt-mix then add lamb meat then feta crumbles – repeat layering until dish is filled to the top

This recipe is quick, east and more creative than a traditional multi-layer dip! Enjoy with tortilla chips! Note, although this is a Mediterranean inspired dish do not buy pita chips at the store because they are unlikely to be gluten-free.

Don’t feel like making dip? You can easily find premade dips at your local grocery store. Try guacamole, salsa, hummus, onion dip or multi-layer bean dip for quick purchases that will still be a crowd pleaser. If you buy onion powder mix be sure to read the ingredients label just in case!

Feel like being ambitious? Try my spin on stuffed jalapeno poppers! Whenever I see stuff jalapenos at parties I usually stay clear for fear of the heat. You won’t know how cooked/roasted the jalapenos are before biting down and an undercooked jalapeno can wreck havoc on your palate and leave you running to the fridge for milk to cool off. If you want a crowd-pleasing twist on a classic then make my Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Poblano Peppers instead!

Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Line a baking sheet with tin foil (for easy clean up) then set aside.

Cut the poblano peppers in half lengthwise; remove the seeds and center membrane

In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, and spices. Add salt and pepper to taste

Using a spoon (or your hands) to spoon the filling equally among the 10 poblano pepper halves.

Wrap each stuffed pepper with one slice of bacon (if too long feel free to cut the bacon strips in half as needed) then stick a toothpick through the center to hold the bacon in place

Place the stuffed peppers on the tin-foil lined baking sheet and bake for 28 minutes or until bacon is crisp

You can refrigerate these and reheat at the party in the oven or eat at room temperature. The poblano peppers have less heat than the traditional jalapeno so your guests will find it easy to eat without burning out their palates. Want to spice things up? Try buying flavored cream cheese like garden vegetable, chive and onion, jalapeno or chipotle flavors (check ingredients before purchasing to double check)!

The last component of attending a Superbowl Party? BYOB. Many people associate beer with watching football and there is no reason you cannot partake in the tradition. Try bringing a 6 pack of hard cider or Redbridge beer. My favorite cider right now is Angry Orchard but there are a lot of brands out there that should be easy to find at the supermarket.

If all else fails you can now order gluten-free pizza at Pizza Hut at select locations! You can expect a CC Gluten Freed blog post dedicated to the new gluten-free Pizza Hut option – the latest development in the gluten-free world! Starting TODAY, Jnauary 26th, Pizza Hut has started rolling out their gluten-free pizza option. Unlike Domino’s it is certified gluten-free. Details to come in my next post. PS thank you Udi’s for working with Pizza Hut to support the gluten free community!

Regardless of whether you are rooting for the Patriots, the Seahawks or are just watching for the commercials you should enjoy all of what Superbowl Sunday has to offer – including the food!

The national cupcake craze has not excluded those living gluten free. In fact, as far as a flour-based food fad goes, the cupcake industry has been pretty inclusive. Shows like Cupcake Wars have highlighted several gluten free bakers in the past few years. How many of you have grabbed a cupcake from Crave Bakeshop in Lake Oswego, Oregon? If you have, then you have probably met Ms. Kyra Bussanich, the proud winner of Cupcake Wars and promoter of gluten free awareness! For my neighbors in the DC Metro Region we can always stop by Sticky Fingers Bakery in Columbia Heights, another winner of cupcake wars, for a vegan gluten-free cupcake! The big kahuna cupcakeries are also jumping on the gluten free bandwagon. Bakeries like Sprinkles Cupcakes provide customers with a red velvet gluten free cupcake. You can tell it is gluten free because it is marked with a big red “G” on top!

From coast to coast you can find bakeries offering gluten free cupcakes but what about baking them yourself?? Cupcakes are a great home-made good to bring to a friend’s dinner party, they are simple to transport, easy to eat (don’t require utensils) and are sweetly delectable. Baking gluten free though, is no walk in the park…or is it?

The days of trying to find the perfect ratio of garbanzo bean flour:qiunoa flour:amaranth flour are over! You also don’t need to search to the ends of the cyber world for a “gluten free” recipe that is more interesting you’re your traditional vanilla or chocolate cupcakes. I’ll be real; you will have a hard time finding a gluten free recipe for the “raspberry cream cheese chocolate swirl cupcake” that your friend posted on Pinterest but with products like Glutino’s Gluten Free Pantry’s All Purpose GF Flour and King Arthur Flour’s Multi Purpose GF Flour the days of questing for specific gluten free recipes are over. Whenever you find a recipe that calls for 1 cup of all-purpose flour, you simply grab your box of all-purpose gluten free flour and get started! You can check out my review of gluten free all purpose flour here!

I recently made gluten free tiramisu cupcakes that completely exceeded my expectations! I am not a baker and always thought that baking gluten free and from scratch was simply off limits given my lack of experience. It turns out, anyone can be a gluten free baker if they want to be. Now, if you hate hearing things like “I can’t believe this is gluten free!!” then don’t make these cupcakes because I guarantee you that people who eat them will shout this while devouring your glorious gluten free goodies. The trick to baking, especially baking gluten free, is following the recipe exactly. Minor deviations can really mess with the texture and denseness of the cake.

For this recipe, and others like it, I suggest investing in 1-2 mini cupcake pans. They are great for desserts, snacks and are just a bit cuter than your average cupcake. The cupcake recipe is for a basic (and delicious) vanilla cupcake based on the recipe by Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. You can use this recipe for making a ton of different cupcake varieties. This post gives instructions for turning a simple vanilla cake into a tiramisu delight!

Step One: Bake Your Mini Cupcakes

Before you get started, make sure you have mixing bowls, an electric mixer or hand mixer, cupcake liners and the like! You do not need a Kitchen Aid Mixer in order to bake this recipe; however, it is my absolute favorite tool in the kitchen! It makes baking so much easier! If you have one stashed in a cupboard somewhere now is the time to use it!

Ingredients: 1 cup soy milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all purpose gluten-free flour

2 tbsp cornstarch

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup granulated sugar

Combine soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a bowl and let sit for around 10 minutes (this allows the soy milk to curdle)

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix together using a fork

Put all wet ingredients into a mixer and mix on low for a few minutes

Add dry ingredients to the mixing bowl a little bit at a time until all ingredients are combined

Use electric mixer to whip the heavy cream. Set mixer on medium speed until you see stiff peaks form in the cream

Combine the powdered sugar and mascarpone in a separate bowl

Gently mix whipped cream and mascarpone mixture together until smooth

Put frosting into plastic baggie and save in fridge until cupcakes are ready

**If you would like a vegan frosting combine ¼ cup margarine ¼ cup vegan cream cheese and 3 cups of powdered sugar in an electric mixer (I add cinnamon and nutmeg for an extra kick).

You will want to use a Ziploc bag so that you can cut the tip off, forming a makeshift pipette tool for frosting the cupcakes!

Step Three: Assemble Your Cupcakes

If you want to give your cupcakes that irresistible coffee flavor that people associate with tiramisu then you need to brew yourself a cup of Joe! I use my Keurig to make a small cup of hazelnut coffee for my cupcakes, there is no need to brew a whole pot of coffee for this. Once your cupcakes are finished baking you will need to cut out a small cone-shaped chunk from the center of each cake. You will drizzle a few drops of coffee into each cupcake. Be careful not to saturate the cake with coffee. You don’t want the cake to be mushy in the center.

Once you have drizzled the coffee over the cakes it is time to get out your frosting. Cut the tip off of your Ziploc bag, forming a pipette and get to work! Once the cupcakes are frosted dust them with cocoa powder and/or cinnamon (I use both!).

Voila! You have now made interesting, delicious, gluten free cupcakes!

The next time you are invited to a dinner party and feel stressed about the dessert option just bring a batch of mini cupcakes! They are the perfect gift to a host because they are small enough that they don’t have to be the main or only dessert but substantial enough that you can feel included in the dessert course even if you can only have the cupcakes. Mini cupcakes are simply a great addition to any event or meal.

Being gluten free is a like being a full time student while having a full time job. It requires understanding what is and where it can be found which means you must learn about the basics of cooking, how to read labels, and common restaurant preparation practices. In terms of quantity of information, it is a lot. Not to mention, the labels on today’s foods are so complicated you feel like you need a BA in chemistry to decipher their code, but we Celiacs manage. Once you get down the basics of being gluten free the real work starts. Every meal tests your knowledge and the consequence of ill-preparation or even a simple mistake is much graver than a bad grade. The good news is that it does become easier with time. That being said, even the most seasoned Celiacs run into gluten now and then.

What are those common pitfalls that get even the most diligent gluten free devotees? Here are 5 things that tend to sneak under the GF radar:

1. Pet Food – who would have though that man’s best friend could be your biggest gluten free enemy? If you aren’t seeking out gluten free food for your pet I suggest you start right away. Cats and dogs (at least mine and I’m sure there must be others) tend to wolf down their food. Seriously, when little Cannoli eats it is like something out of a cartoon with food flying in all directions.

In college my roommate had a Chihuahua who, like most small dogs and cats, would pick up a mouthful of food from their bowl and eat in all the way across the room on the floor. If your pet food is full of gluten (like most are) you may be putting yourself at serious risk for cross-contamination in your house.

If you think labeling laws are lackluster in the human world, wait until you start looking for gluten free pet food. “Grain free” does NOT usually mean gluten free in the pet world. In fact, “grain free” varieties tend to have both oatmeal and barley in their recipes. You want to find brands that say “gluten free” or “no glutens” on them or you can take the time to read the labels on the “grain free” foods because some are gluten free.

Treats should also be gluten free because you typically handle them with your bare hands. Blue has a bunch of gluten free treats that you can use to train puppies and to simply treat your pet.

Here are some very affordable brands that have gluten free food for both cats and dogs. I have used both Instinct and Blue for my pets with great results.

2. Wine – Many people believe that all wine is gluten free. While most wines are gluten free there are some exceptions that you should be aware of and on the lookout for. For example, the process of fining the wine can result in gluten contamination if the company uses wheat protein as their fining agent. Fining is a process where the wine is stabilized and clarified by adding a protein (usually a clay called bentonite or animal protein). The proteins drift through the wine picking up solids and then sink to the bottom of the barrel leaving the wine at the top clear and stable.

Wines that don’t undergo fining usually need to be decanted before drinking. Furthermore, the proteins attract and eventually precipitate out phenols which contribute to the bitter taste of the wine. Fining can be used to augment the taste or astringency of the wine.

What is the verdict? Your wine is most likely safe, so drink up! According to Geraldine Newcomen of the Food Standards Agency in the UK, any product containing an allergen must be properly labelled eg if a wine fining process contaminates the wine with wheat it must be labeled on the bottle as “containing wheat.” This is not true, or at least not enforced, in the US but most wines are naturally gluten free. Most wine companies use bentonite clay as their fining agent due the the vegan movement encouraging them to stay away from animal proteins and the food allergy movement pushing them away from using gluten. When you drink wine, be conscientious. Check for any allergy labels on the bottle, avoid wines from Australia or New Zealand which have a higher likelihood of using wheat products during the wine making process.

3. French Fries – My go-to food at restaurants when I first got my CD diagnosis was French Fries. It wasn’t until a year into my diagnosis that I realized that French Fries are much more enemy than friend. Though they are made of potato there are so many ways to contaminate French Fries. First and foremost, they are most likely fried in contaminated oil. If the oil in the deep fryer is used to fry onion rings, fried chicken, wontons and the like than all foods fried in that oil are essentially infused with gluten and should be avoided. Additionally, a lot of French Fries are dredged in flour to make them crisper when fried. What is worse, a lot of restaurants buy their French Fries frozen and so the waitstaff and potentially the kitchen staff wouldn’t even know that they have been dunked in flour. Along the lines of restaurants buying frozen French Fries, sometimes the staff does not pay attention to what type of fries they buy. For example, I went to a place in Berkeley, California that was selling beer-battered French Fries but didn’t even know it. I discovered this when I asked to see the packaging.

The moral of the story is stay away from French Fries unless you are at a restaurant that you know really, really well or has been trained in cross-contamination and gluten free awareness.

Are there some safe fries out there? Yes! Five Guys and In N Out both have GF fries and oil that is exclusively used for their fries. Stay away from almost all other fast food French Fries and be sure to inquire at sit-down restaurants before ordering their fries.

4. Veggie Burgers – I don’t fully understand why but many, many, many people assume that if something is vegetarian or vegan then it is probably gluten free too. This is absolutely not the case. Although vegans and gluten free people both have highly restricted diets, read labels and ask questions at restaurant it does not mean that our needs are the same. Sometimes, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it simply isn’t a duck. You know? I have been served veggie patties as the “gluten free option” a number of times, all of which resulted in me being glutened. I learned my lesson and now avoid veggie burgers unless I can personally read the label or a chef comes out and tells me how he or she made the burger.

One time I was at a catered work event and the caterer said the veggie burger was the GF option. I asked the guy to double check the packaging and I watched as he picked up the box and read. He came back to report that the patty was gluten free. Literally form 10 feet away and looking over his shoulder I could see a big sticker on the box that said “MADE FROM WHOLE WHEAT!” Sometimes people can’t get vegans and gluten free people separated in their brains. This is something that gluten free people need to know and counter-act.

Some veggie burgers, like Sunshine burgers, are gluten free. If you are trying to be GF and vegetarian or vegan than be sure to find some reliable brands so you don’t go hungry! I am actually going vegan until Thanksgiving and I look forward to the challenge. I’ll be sure to post about my experience once it has been longer than a two-day commitment (I started yesterday).

5. Preschool or Kindergarten – This may not apply to most of my readers; however, many of you either have or at least know a Celiac kid. Playdough is any Celiac kids worst enemy. Children play with it all day and then run around touching things with their contaminated, yet adorable, little hands. If you have a Celiac kid and need to send him or her to preschool or Kindergarten I suggest talking to the head teacher about playdough in the classroom.

Ironically, I discovered how troubling play-dough (brand: Play-Doh) can be through my work. At a big work conference all of our tables had play-dough at them for people to fiddle with during the long 6 hour lectures. Unfortunately, we also ate lunch at these tables. People would rub the play-dough on the table to flatten it out, little bits would stick to the table and dry and my colleagues’ hands were coated with the shiny oil from the play dough, making me feel like I could see the gluten all over them. As a grown up, I wasn’t too concerned. I made sure my hands and food didn’t touch the table. Kids aren’t this observant. They touch everything around them and are very prone to sticking their hands in their mouths. The risk of contamination is pretty high!

Solutions? Talk to the teacher about having play-dough removed from the classroom. I am a teacher and I know I would be receptive to a suggestion like this from a parent. If for some reason they believe that play-dough is a quintessential component for their pre-K curriculum than advise they buy a GF brand. If they refuse you may want to consider either going to an administrator at the school or buying the GF play-dough yourself and coercively donate it to the school. If there is one thing I know about parents of Celiac kids, they are persistent and effective advocates for their children.

Alright, I recognize that on top of everything you know about being gluten free, adding even five more things can be pretty frustrating and disheartening. Let’s end on a positive note. We talked about five surprising things you can’t have but what are some surprising things that you can have???

1. Macaroons and Macarons – Most Macaroons and Macarons are naturally gluten free! Macaroons are the American cookie with coconut in them used by many during Passover. Macarons are typically those colorful French cookies you see in pastry shops. They are also usually gluten free because they are traditionally made with almond flour.

There are always exceptions so always read labels and ask questions but for the most part, you are good to go. Jewish Macarons are used as a dessert on Passover. They are Kosher and gluten free. Additionally, a lot of French Macarons are made with almond flour like this recipe for chocolate Macarons.

2. Lea and Perrins – We normally avoid Worcester Sauce because it used to always have gluten in it. This also meant we had to avoid Caesar salads and many steak sauces and marinades. Today, Lea and Perrins, probably the biggest Worcester company, has changed their recipe to be gluten free. I still would be cautious about ordering a Caesar salad or ordering something with Worcester without seeing the bottle and making sure it is Lea and Perrins but you can definitely use it at home when you are cooking. In the next few years I think it will be safe to eat Caesar dressing without too much inquiry. Now that Lea and Perrins have set the bar, I expect other companies to follow suit. Until that day, always be cautious but you can start re-including Lea and Perrins into your recipes.

3. Dorritos – These are now gluten free! The original flavor of Dorritos has changed its recipe, which used to include wheat flour, to a recipe that uses corn instead. As someone in the field of Public Health I can’t really condone eating Dorritos but this will make Superbowl parties and the like much easier considering how popular the Nacho Cheese flavor is! Yum!

4. Pao de Queijo aka Brazilian Cheese Bread – Ever been to Fogo De Chao? This is a very popular Brazilian restaurant that, like most Brazilian restaurants, serves Pao. This is the most amazing cheese bread on the planet! Seriously, it tastes like a Cheez-It but has the texture of fresh baked, perfectly gooey bread. It is naturally gluten free. If you don’t have a Brazilian restaurant in your area than you should order Brazi Bites online (or look for them at your local GF store).

5. Poppadoms aka Indian Lentil Bread – Though the texture resembles that of a chip more than bread, Poppadoms are delicious and available at most Indian restaurants. You should always check to make sure they do not have flour in them because some restaurants do not follow an authentic Poppadom recipe. They have a yummy nutty flavor and are a great GF substitute for Naan. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t taste like Naan, but it is something you can munch on at the table and use to scoop up curry in the bottom of your bowl during dinner.

I hope reading about the five foods that many unsuspecting Celiacs fall victim to will help you avoid gluten contamination this fall and that they five happy gluten free surprises made your day! Go indulge in some Macarons or some cheesy Dorritos. Being gluten free is very challenging. You deserve to indulge every now and then. Enjoy!

Most of the school districts in the country have just finished with their first week of school. As a first year teacher I am relearning what it means to need to bring your lunch to school everyday. I know that teaching isn’t the only profession with an almost non-existant lunch break. So, what do we grownups do about lunch? We need to revert back to a childhood strategy: the brown bag.

Being active in the field of public health has exposed me to many health conundrums that individuals must work to overcome despite the fact that the real answers to these problems can only be solved by city planning and public policy. One such problem: food deserts. The food scenes in these deserts are dominated by fast food restaurants and mini-marts. You can drive for miles without seeing a healthy food option. These food deserts impact the health of lower-income, both urban and rural, communities across the country. For a Celiac, the prevalence of food deserts are exponentially greater because options that are typically considered “healthy” are often unavailable to us. A gluten-free-food-desert is an area with very limited GF options. Maybe it is near where you live. Maybe it is where near you work. Either way these GF deserts make planning a necessity for any successful Celiac.

My current job happens to be in a food desert. When my school had a faculty meeting we had to pass up six proximal pizza places because none of them had a salad option. We ended up picking Lido’s pizza which was much further away than the other six pizza options near my school.

The lunch break for a teacher can more accurately be called a lunch moment. We have about twenty minutes to take care of anything personal (eating, restroom, making phone calls, organizing, grabbing something we left in the car, etc.), then it is back into the trenches.

This is where the brown paper bag comes into play. I don’t have time to run out to a local fast food place to grab lunch. To boot, none of the places near me have viable GF options. My school is surrounded by a buffalo wings place, Chick-fil-A, a couple of pizza places and a supermarket whose buffet is made up of chicken strips, mac n’ cheese and fresh baked bread. The only viable solution to daily hunger-induced grumpiness (grumpy teachers aren’t good for the children) I could come up with is packing my lunch.

my lunch bag

So what should we put into these brown bags? I like to pack a combination of nutritious and filling foods. For example, blueberries are great for you but if you are hungry they really aren’t going to do the trick. That being said, opting for filling or calorie laden foods at the expense of nutrition will eventually wear your health down, breaking down your immune defenses and daily stamina. If your job requires interacting with lots of people then you really need to make sure your immune defenses are at their best.

Here are some of the things I will have in my lunch this week. Keep in mind that packing a lunch often requires either planning and prepping the night before or getting up a little bit earlier than you would like.
MONDAY

Using my favorite tupperware from Target, I pack the tupperware full of dark leafy greens, leftover meat (did you make chicken or steak this weekend? Save leftovers!) and grilled eggplant. I do not like dressing. It is messy, it makes the salad limp and the ingredients always make me nervous. Instead of dressing, I use other components like meat or grilled veggies to compliment the salad. I think of it like a breadless sandwich.

Grilled Eggplant Recipe:

1. Slice eggplant vertically

2. Heat up a grill-pan or sauté pan

3. Cover both sides of the sliced eggplant with a light coating of olive oil

4. Season with salt and pepper. Feel free to spice up your seasoning by using onion powder, chili powder, paprika etc.

5. Let the eggplant cook on each side for about a minute and a half. When the sides look dark (they will turn from off-white to an olive green) they are ready!

Once your salad is ready pack an apple, a bag of baby carrots and a yogurt. Don’t forget utensils! If you don’t finish everything that is ok! You can nibble what is left on your commute home. Your goal should be bringing the perfect amount of food but if you have to miscalc on that you would way rather have too much than too little.
WEDNESDAY

Wednesday I am packing a good old fashioned sandwich. The best GF sandwich bread is Udi’s whole grain loaf (the one with the green label!). It stays together really well, it isn’t too dry/crumbly and it has a nostalgia-inducing classic sandwich bread taste.

When you buy sandwich meat at the grocery store make sure it is GF! Giant market (this is an east coast thing) has GF meat at their deli (it is labeled and everything!). I have been using honey-roasted turkey, sharp cheddar cheese, mayo, dijon mustard, cracked pepper and (of course) I sub out iceberg lettuce and opt for dark leafy greens. Don’t forget to pack up snacks likes carrots, berries, yogurt, rice chips or a banana.

FRIDAY

Let’s say it is the end of the week and your groceries are running low. What do you do? One of my favorite lunches is leftover chipotle burrito bowls. Chipotle (or Qdoba) has all GF ingredients for their burrito bowls. Chipotle is notorious for overstuffing their bowls. I can never finish them! So, to facilitate the leftover lunch making process, I divide the bowl in half before I start eating. By dividing it in half early on, I guarantee that I will have enough leftovers to make my lunch the next day.

Don’t have any leftovers like this? You can make a salad with dark leafy greens but instead of using leftover meat or eggplant, make your own dressing. My personal favorite is an orange vinaigrette. You should make this the night before because there is no way you are going to be down to supreme oranges early in the morning!

Remove the peels from the oranges using a sharp knife, cutting all the way through the pith. Section the oranges into supremes by cutting between each membrane. Click here for a “how to” on cutting out supremes. Squeeze each membrane of its juices into a bowl (save this for dressing!). Corasely chop the orange sections and place in the bowl with the juices. Then add the sweated shallots, vinegar and herbs to the bowl. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the splay of olive oil.

You can make this fancier and more complicated by adding diced cucumber to the dressing OR you can make this recipe simpler and quicker to assemble by taking out the shallots and/or herbs.

Unlike dressing you buy at the store, this dressing is made of 100% fresh ingredients, no preservatives AND it is nutritious. Fresh oranges and herbs are great for you! Instead of adding empty calories to your salad you end up adding vitamin C, antioxidants and phytonutrients.

As for kids, a lot of my ideas are for a grown-up palate, although I do find that Celiac kids have pretty sophisticated taste for their ages! When it comes to packing a kids lunch try and do things that will look like what all the other kids have. Again, I recommend Udi’s bread because it really does look and feel like classic glutinous bread. Udi’s also has cookies that look and taste great. I would try and stay away from GF products that…look like gluten free products. Being GF can be very isolating which is difficult for children to cope with. Making sure to buy products that are similar to what the other kids are having is a great tool for any Celiac of GF parent. Kinnikinnick has delicious products for kids like their graham crackers. These don’t look exactly like what the other kids will have but they really are delicious. They even have an animal cracker that will work well with school lunches! In addition, for kids, you can always stick with the basics. A PBJ with some baby carrots and string cheese.

Enjoy your lunches! If I get bored with these, as I am sure I will over the next few months, I will post my new creations! This way we can keep our palates and our bodies happy and healthy throughout the year.

How many of you have followed through with your New Year’s Resolutions?

I have and, as promised, I am following up with my readers regarding my gluten free New Year’s Resolutions! On December 30, 2011, I decided I would come up with 3 New Year’s Resolutions that would improve my gluten free life, making it easier and more enjoyable.

NYR #1

As most seasoned Celiacs know, there are various levels of “gluten freeness.” You have the people who are comfortable scraping the cheese/toppings off of a pizza or the icing off of a cake, the people who avoid gluten but don’t ask questions about cross contamination and, finally, the people who avoid gluten as if it is the plague and we are living in 1349. Though I strive to be the latter, I do find that on occasion I just don’t feel like doing the gluten free dance when ordering, so I order something I am pretty sure is safe. My NYR was to STOP DOING THAT! I am happy to report that I have been super gluten free since January 1st.

Results? I find that I am much less stressed at restaurants, though not always as pleased with my meal. For example, instead of ordering the burger on the “specials menu” at Red Robin (now offering GF buns!), I chose the classic cheese burger that was listed on the “gluten free menu.” In my head, I know that the specials aren’t on the GF menu because they are new and are probably GF but I stuck with the simpler and safer choice. Not only is dining out less stressful but I do believe that I have been “glutened” fewer times this year compared to previous years.

NYR #2

Though very active in the GF blogosphere as a writer, my second NYR aimed to increase my activity in the GF blogosphere as a reader. I have started following a couple GF blogs and have discovered that not only are there many GF blogs out there but they are all very different. If you started following one or two blogs and simply felt it was not meant for you, I encourage you try one more time! I realized that there were some blogs that I really liked in terms of content, frequency of updates, visual style and writing style and others that just weren’t a good fit for me.

My third and final NYR was to start using my iPhone (Androids work for this as well) to help with being gluten free. This has been a huge success for me. I used Find Me Gluten Free to choose where to eat. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I ate at a restaurant NOT listed on this phone app. It is great for finding a quick place to eat when out with friends in an area that I am not familiar with. The app takes your GPS location and then tells you where the closest GF friendly restaurants are, how to get there and what they offer. I highly recommend downloading this app. I actually bought my first smart phone for the sole purpose of downloading this app. It was the best, strategic phone decision I have ever made.

What was your New Year’s Resolution? Have you been true to it? We are officially half way through the year! If you haven’t been following your NYR, it isn’t too late — get started now. Either create a new NYR’s for the mid-point of the year or choose to follow mine. Either way, I find that the New Year gives us an opportunity to better ourselves and reaffirm our commitment to health. I look at the mid-point of the year as a great opportunity to renew my commitment to my health and make being GF easier and more enjoyable.

Domino’s Pizza was founded in 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Today, it is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States (second to Pizza Hut) and has more than 9,000 established franchised stores in the world. An incorporation with a successful foothold in 60 countries has a lot of power over the pizza industry’s reputation and the expectations of consumers with respect to the quality of service that a reputable pizza store should meet.

Domino’s has a history of being the first of its industry to adapt certain unique marketing techniques. For example, in 1973 Domino’s started advertising their 30-minute guarantee to customers. If Domino’s couldn’t deliver the pizza within 30 minutes of ordering, your pizza was free. In the 1980s the offer went from a free pizza to $3 off due to liability issues. Consumers began to speak out about the dangers of the 30-minute guarantee, expressing that it caused the delivery people to engage in unsafe driving. Eventually the 30-minute guarantee advertising campaign was dropped due to political and legal pressures.

What does this history have to do with the new gluten-free pizza crust? Domino’s has a history of being pizza pioneers when it comes to advertising. Ironically, the marketing campaigns employed by Domino’s seem to have a domino effect: once Domino’s does it, all of the other chains begin to follow suit. If history is to repeat itself, I wouldn’t be surprised if more pizza chains not only start offering gluten-free crusts but also follow Domino’s lead with regard to how they offer this new product.

Domino’s Gluten Free Pizza

As most people in the GF and celiac community know, Domino’s started offering a gluten-free pizza crust on May 7, 2012. Ironically announced during Celiac Awareness Month, the company explicitly stated that this gluten-free pizza is not designed for people with celiac disease. The pizza crust, in a vacuum, is gluten-free. What is the catch? Domino’s hasn’t taken any of the necessary precautions to prevent cross-contamination. In fact, on their website they state “While the Gluten-Free Crust is certified to be free of gluten, the pizza made with the Gluten-Free Crust use the same ingredients and utensils as all of our other pizzas.”

Here is a video that Domino’s made to help get the word out about their new product.

Their advertisement for gluten-free crust starts off by saying “Because we are honest people, here is a disclaimer.” For the record, a more accurate beginning to their disclaimer would state “Because we are lazy people, here is a disclaimer.” It would simply take a bit more education, training and effort to provide a fairly safe gluten-free option. At the end of the video ad you hear the narrator saying “Ok, enough already with the disclaimers we are really excited to tell you about our new gluten-free crust…” Not only is the crust not actually gluten-free but Domino’s goes so far as to dismiss their disclaimer as if it is an irrelevant formality

Issue #1: Gluten Free Labeling Laws

The FDA is close to formally establishing the legal requirements necessary to label a product as gluten free. Despite being on the books as an issue needing regulation for several years, the FDA has failed to respond to public pressure until now. The FDA only regulates food products but I wonder why the government recognizes that products should be regulated for the gluten-free status but not restaurants that offer similar products.

Government entities like the USDA and FDA protect the US population by regulating highly distributed, manufactured and agricultural food products. This is important to prevent public health catastrophes related to contaminated food products.

In general, it would not make sense to allocate government resources for regulating restaurants on a federal level because, in the past, if a restaurant had contaminated products or unsafe practices it wouldn’t affect enough people for it to be considered a federal issue. Unfortunately, in the world of chains and franchises, the idea that restaurants only impact their immediate surroundings is no longer true.

In this context we are talking about a pizza company that is located in every single state in this country with over 5,000 individual restaurant locations. The kitchen ingredients used by Domino’s can affect a large part of the US population and, more relevantly, their institutionalized kitchen protocol can affect people on a population level as well.

If Domino’s wants to offer a gluten free crust they should be subject to some form of regulation since their product is so wide-reaching. If Domino’s had a kitchen protocol that had all their chains set the ovens to a temperature that consistently undercooked meat, resulting in food poisoning, we would have a national health crisis on our hands. I don’t know why we are turning a blind eye when it comes to gluten free protocol in the kitchen.

Furthermore, calling their pizza “gluten free” should be considered false advertisement, if not fraud. Their appeal to the gluten free market is abhorrent. The gluten-free market base is depression-proof and has been consistently and substantially growing for the past 10 years. You should not be able to con your way into this market. If you take a chicken breast and dredge it lightly in flour before frying it, is this entree gluten free? NO. Is the chicken breast itself gluten free? YES. Similarly, if you have a gluten free pizza crust it is no longer gluten free if you cross-contaminate by preparing it in an environment covered in gluten-based flour (similar to a light dredging, if you will).

Issue #2 Corporate Precent

One of the main reasons that I find Domino’s actions completely unacceptable is because of, what I am calling, corporate precedent. California Pizza Kitchen started offering a gluten free pizza crust before doing their homework. They developed a crust but did not research cross-contamination protocol. As a result, customers complained. Did CPK slap a disclaimer on their menu and call it a day? No. CPK pulled the pizza from their menu and started working with the Gluten Intolerance Group to develop a strategy to make their kitchen safe for gluten-free pizza cooking. Domino’s justifies their lack of concern for cross-contamination by saying that the crust is for gluten intolerant or gluten sensitive consumers. Interestingly, although Domino’s argued that they are catering towards the gluten sensitive population, the Gluten Intolerance Group is the organization that stepped up to help CPK prevent cross contamination. I really enjoyed this post by Linda who points out that, of all the gluten sensitive people she knows, none of them have “mild” senstiives” and they do not appreciate a contaminated pizza!

Domino’s has stated that they simply don’t have the kitchen capacity to make a truly gluten free pizza. It seems reasonable that it might be hard to make a profit if they had to change their kitchen set up for this product. Then I remember PF Changs, a nationally represented corporate restaurant chain that has successfully created a gluten free menu and has changed their kitchen set up to accommodate safe food preparation.

Before Domino’s the precedents set by various corporations trying to go gluten free have been in favor of trying to prevent cross-contamination. I fear for the gluten free future of the restaurant industry now that such a large and financially successful company has started saying that it is ok to take the easy way out.

The Bigger Picture

Supply and demand: a fundamental concept in economics. If consumers demand a certain product, the market will supply it. What happens when the supply and demand get muddled and confused? Poor products. In response to perceived consumer demands restaurants and food companies are responding by creating “gluten-free” products. The problem is that the market is not understanding the true nature of the current demand.

Supply is not the issue right now. There are so many gluten free products on the market. If current product supply were the issue I would pick up some frozen pizza crusts at Whole Foods, go to Domino’s and ask them to heat it up for me. What is in need, the demand, is education and awareness. I don’t need Domino’s to create and produce a tasty recipe for a pizza crust. Udi’s, among other companies, has awesome pizza crust already. What we need is a safe place to dine out

Empowerment

I want to remind my readers that CPK stopped offering their gluten free pizza until they could establish a safe kitchen environment in response to a letter by a customer. If you want Domino’s to take accountability then send them a letter (or write them an email) explaining why taking the gluten-free pizza one step further could make a huge difference in your life and in the lives of many other people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Ultimately, if we want to change the market then we need to change the nature and clarity of our “demand.” The first step to this change? Advocate for yourself.

A note about NFCA

Check out their letter from Alice Bast discussing their involvement with Domino’s Pizza. NFCA has taken a lot of heat for seemingly endorsing Domino’s. Domino’s reached out to NFCA to consult about their new gluten free product. NFCA informed Domino’s that the pizza is not safe for Celiacs and reviewed their ingredient lists and kitchen practices to draw this conclusion. Although the Amber designation is fairly controversial, it is better than Domino’s advertising their pizza as gluten free without a disclaimer. Check out this post by Linda from theglutenfreehomemaker.com about why the amber designation may be a huge step back for the Celiac Community. Without NFCA Domino’s might have simply not let consumers know about the serious cross contamination risks.

Many families celebrate Easter with a dinner party. I know in my family, the food served and attending guests are very much grounded in tradition. Many, if not most, Celiacs are not diagnosed as children and, consequently, their family dinners and traditions may be a gluten free obstacle that they will face this Spring. Families of Celiacs diagnosed at older ages may not be as familiar with the gluten free diet and how to accommodate their family member as a family that raised a Celiac child.

How do you work around such a challenge? There are various reasons why trying to tweak your family dinners to be GF may be more difficult than simply telling the appointed cook not to use flour to thicken the gravy.

Here are some scenarios that may apply to you and ways you can gracefully work around them:

You are very recently diagnosed:

If you were recently diagnosed then this may be your first Easter dinner, if not your first big family dinner, since becoming gluten free. Learning about all the complex components of the GF diet is overwhelming at the best of times, let alone during a hectic holiday filled with out of town relatives, family feuds and the like. How can you get your family on board with your new lifestyle?

Talk specifically to the host and/or the family cook. If you aren’t comfortable speaking to your entire family or if you simply don’t have time to explain the intricacies of the GF diet to your entire family, be smart about who you talk to! Around the holidays, time is of the essence. Figure out who is cooking and make a plan — find places where you can substitute GF ingredients and double check all the family recipes and ingredients that will be used.

You don’t know the host well/are a new guest:

Not everyone has the time to travel to wherever their families may live. Maybe you have recently moved to a new city and don’t know many people. In these two situations you may be going to an Easter dinner at a new friend’s or a friend of a friend’s house. What if you aren’t able to get in touch with the host before the dinner party?

If this is the case, bring an entree or a substantial side dish to the party with you! It is completely normal and, often, encouraged to bring a gift or contribution for the host of the dinner party. Give this gift a dual purpose: a gift for the host, demonstrating incredible etiquette and something filling you can eat, demonstrating incredible preparedness.

What to bring:

There are many simple GF dishes you can bring the an Easter dinner that are filling and delicious. Try making a quinoa dish, which will be an acceptable side dish for some and, if need be, a main entree for yourself. I suggest this springtime recipe for a quinoa dish!

Another easy and filling option is roasted vegetables. This is very easy to make and is both a homey dish and a very nutritious one! I suggest picking up fingerling potatoes, carrots and fresh beets. Chop all the vegetables into similar sized bites and season with olive oil, garlic power, onion powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Spread the veggies out on a cookie sheet and roast in the oven, set at 400 degrees, for ~30-40 minutes or until tender. The beets and carrots add a sweetness to the potatoes that will surely impress the host of the dinner party.

If not these dishes, I highly recommend brining either a starch (rice, quinoa, potatoes etc) or a meat/poultry dish (a whole, stuffed chicken or a small honey baked ham). You want to bring something that is substantial enough to serve as your meal so that you are not a lone starving guest.

Other Useful Resources:

This year there are a ton of great GF resources on the web specifically for having a GF Easter. Gluten Freeville posted a 2012 GF Ham list! I highly suggest using this resource before purchasing a ham for a dinner party. Last Easter, I bought a ham that was labeled GF but the glaze on the ham was NOT gluten free! This was a tricky labeling problem that I overlooked and greatly regretted it! Make sure you find a ham that is safe, I even suggest calling the company to double check the GF status of their product.

Enjoy some Peeps!

I love enjoying classic food items that are naturally gluten free. It makes me feel like I have a super normal and easy diet! Peeps are an Easter classic. Though completely devoid of nutritional value, Peeps are a fun, sugary and gluten free dessert you can munch on with your friends. To top it off, unlike many GF substitutes, they are incredibly cheap! Bring a large pack of peeps to the Easter dinner party you attend as a dessert. Even if the host is serving a seemingly delicious glutinous cake, I would bet my blog that the majority of guests won’t be able to pass up the nostalgic, sugary goodness that is Peeps.

Good luck with all of the dinner parties! I hope that these strategies are useful and make the holidays a bit less stressful for everyone!

When I first moved the Berkeley I struggled to find places that offered gluten free options. Despite being a foodie town, Berkeley has struggled to get on the gluten free bandwagon. The enthusiasm was, and is, there but the necessary education and safe kitchen practices were simply missing…until now.

Four years later, I am pleased to report that Berkeley is impressively gluten free friendly, improving at an almost exponential rate. I feel a sense personal responsibility for Berkeley’s improvement, though not sole responsibility. Berkeley’s success is a result of the collective efforts of individual students, community members and nonprofit organizations that work to promote Celiac awareness. In June, I am moving to Washington DC. I hope to witness and contribute to this, in a sense, evolutionary phenomenom once again.

My father came to visit me last week and I made it a point to take him to as many GFF (gluten free friendly) restaurants as possible during his stay. It was during this visit when I realized how much Berkeley has changed in the past four years.

La Mediterranee

I always order the same thing at La Med: pomegranate chicken with hummus and chopped veggies. Although my entree option is delicious, I always feel a twinge of jealously towards the people ordering the Tabbouleh, a Greek dish traditionally made with Bulgur Wheat. Despite having dined at this restaurant over a dozen times, it wasn’t until this most recent trip that La Med told me that they just began offering a GF Tabbouleh, with quinoa serving as a substitute. I made sure to ask my waitress to let the manager and chef know how much the GF option was appreciated!

Cream

If you visit Berkeley, students will almost invariably point you towards Cream for dessert, an ice-cream sandwich shop that always has a line out the door. Despite only opening a year or so ago, Cream realized that there is a demand for GF options and began serving GF ice cream sandwiches. I went to see how they handled cross-contamination and, to my surprise, they did quite well! Cream keeps the GF cookies on a shelf above the gluten-containing cookies and toasts them on a designated and elevated rack in the oven. The elevation is particularly important because it protects the gluten free cookies from cross contamination via gravity, the last thing you want are little crumbs of gluten falling onto the designated GF oven rack!

Kirala

Arguably the best sushi restaurant in Berkeley, Kirala offers GF soy sauce to customers who ask for it! The waitstaff is very educated about what the gluten free diet is and what kind of people will want GF soy sauce. The first time I dined at Kirala, my waiter noticed my packet of Tamari soy sauce and immediately brought me a crystal bottle filled with GF soy sauce.

Filippo’s

It is rare that I find an Italian restaurant that has a GF option. Filippo’s on College Ave. in Berkeley offers a GF gnocchi. Unfortunately they used to cook this GF entree in contaminated pasta water! I found this out the hard way but used my negative experience to improve my community’s GF options. I wrote a letter to the manager explaining what was wrong with their kitchen practice and he followed up with me in person to show me the improvements the restaurant had made for GF customers. Click here to view sample letters to restaurants about cross contamination concerns. When I talked to Filipo’s about cross-contaomination they had no problem making a change and seemed genuinely glad for the feedback.

These are just a couple of examples of how restaurants can make small changes to their establishments to accommodate GF customers. Have GF soy sauce in the back, designate oven racks for GF foods, these are cost-free, low maintenance changes that restaurants can make but, despite being a small change, can make a big difference for many customers.

If you have a local restaurant that you used to love before being diagnosed try talking to them about becoming gluten free friendly!

If the restaurant seems very interested in catering to the gluten free population tell them about GREAT Kitchens, an official gluten free training program for restaurant kitchens. There is no harm in asking! At worst, you educate a restaurant and get gluten/allergens on their minds and at best you get your favorite restaurant back onto your list of dinner options!

My roommate is an avid baker. So much so, that we were both hesitant to move in together because I require a gluten free kitchen. Sharing a kitchen with non-gluten free people is certainly manageable but not if there is baking involved. Read my post about the dangers of being around dry flour for more information on this topic.

Back to the point, what were we to do? My roommate decided that she would try out gluten free baking and it was a huge success! Part of this success is due to extensive testing. She must have made close to 20 batches of cupcakes with different batters and combinations of flours.

Glutino’s Gluten Free Pantry series was the answer to our problems, specifically, their all-purpose flour. There are many gluten-free flour mixes out there but, that is just the thing, they are mixes. Premixed cakes, brownies, breads and cookie recipes which simply would not due for a committed baker.

This is by far our favorite gluten free all-purpose flour for several reasons:

1. Cup-for-cup substitution – you can take any recipe calling for flour and simply replace the flour with GF flour without any complicated measurements. Before I found this product I would have to replace 1 cup of gluten flour with various ratios of brown rice, white rice, tapioca and potato flours.

2. Great for hosts – Ever been invited to a dinner party where the host or hostess offers to bake gluten free dessert for you? It is always incredibly awkward because the host usually offers before realizes just how complicated gluten free baking can be. Next time a friend offers to bake GF for you, suggest this product! The one-to-one substitution in conjunction with the fact that it is premixed/all-purpose simplify the baking process.

3. Affordable – My pantry used to have close to eight boxes of different types of flours that I would mix together in various ratios to produce different types of baked goods. This is neither financially economical nor space economical…I could hear my bank account and pantry shelves crying out for help! Gluten Free Pantry’s all-purpose flour is under $5 for 16 oz of flour.

4. Taste – I hate when people say “Wow! This is great for gluten-free food!” My ultimate baking goal is to simply hear that the food is great without the gluten-free caveat and with this brand of all-purpose flour I always achieve my goal.

Glutino’s Gluten Free Pantry series features many other types of flour mixes! Check them out on Glutino’s website!